Martin Luther King was a radical democrat, by which I mean someone who is a foe of wealth inequality. — Cornel West Copy Share Image
To be great in our times too often means to have great prosperity and no moral magnanimity at all. — Cornel West Copy Share Image
To be an intellectual really means to speak a truth that allows suffering to speak. — Cornel West Copy Share Image
One is that I am a regular, everyday person, you know what I mean. I feel that wherever I am, I really… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
liberty, which means resisting all forms of cultural authoritarianism, be it from the right wing church, black ideologues, black nationalists, or mainstream… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
The most dangerous thing in American society is a self-respecting and self-loving black person, because they're on the road to freedom and… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
To me, healing means you have to recognize there is a wound and you try to understand what the sources of the… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
So more and more black folk tend to be well-adjusted to [Barack] Obama's presidency, but does that mean they're well-adjusted to injustice?… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
Success is such a relative thing for me. I'm fundamentally a Christian which means that ultimately all of the penultimate titles and… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
Philosophy is fundamentally about how you come to terms with living your life and trying to do it in a wise manner,… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
The condition of truth is to allow suffering to speak, it means then that if you have a prophetic sensibility, you are… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
The condition of truth, is to allow suffering to speak. Which means attend to suffering of the least of these, of the… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
Those who came to the United States didn't realize they were white until they got here. They were told they were white.… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
When you say that [Martin Luther] King was a prophet, you don't say that he predicted anything; you say that he bore… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
I think nonviolence and the mediation of conflict by means of respecting civility must be promoted. But being the kind of beings… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
He[Michael Jackson] had a joy in being alive. There was a joy you felt of him on the stage and making us… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
What does it really mean to be a leftist in the early part of the 21st century? What are we really talking… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
What is accurately portrayed is the rich humanity not just of Martin Luther King but of the movement, which was a multiracial movement. You… — Cornel West Copy Share
I feel as if I have been blessed to undergo a transformation from 'gangster' to 'redeemed sinner with gangster proclivities.' — Cornel West Copy Share
“Like King, we need to put on our cemetery clothes and be coffin-ready for the next great democratic battle.” — Cornel West Copy Share
“You can't really move forward until you look back. [From Remaking America panel discussion at George Washington University]” — Cornel West Copy Share
When we think of globalization we are thinking in part of structures and institutions that have been developed over time and that have allowed… — Cornel West Copy Share
The challenge artists face today is whether to be an underground, unheard genius, or to dilute their art for the marketplace. — Cornel West Copy Share
The need of black conservatives to gain the respect of their white peers deeply shapes certain elements of their conservatism. In this regard, they… — Cornel West Copy Share
For me, musicians are poets. Beethoven describes himself as a poet of tones, just like Coltrane's a poet of tempo. — Cornel West Copy Share
I don't draw any distinctions between forms of bigotry or forms of ideology that lose sight of the humanity of people. I can't stand… — Cornel West Copy Share
Barack Obama has domesticated the left in such a way that we feel as if we have no alternative but him...I refuse to accept… — Cornel West Copy Share
Larry Summers, I think, he had a long history of arrogance and relative ignorance about poor people's culture and working people's culture and so… — Cornel West Copy Share
You can see it in terms of the obsession on Wall Street with not just profits but greed, more profit, more profit. — Cornel West Copy Share
Anybody who takes Martin Luther King seriously has got to go beyond the standard understanding of who he was, has to connect those dots. — Cornel West Copy Share
![“So more and more black folk tend to be well-adjusted to [Barack] Obama's presidency, but does that mean they're well-adjusted to injustice? Because we don't hear our president talking about the new Jim Crow, the prison-industrial complex.” quote by Cornel West](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/981/cornel-west-708_barack_so-more-and-more-black-folk-tend-to-be-w_2283384.jpg)
![“When you say that [Martin Luther] King was a prophet, you don't say that he predicted anything; you say that he bore witness. He left a committed life so that people would never forget the suffering of people that he was connected to. King was prophetic because he lived a committed life. Now he…” quote by Cornel West](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/81a/cornel-west-708_bores_when-you-say-that-martin-luther-king-was_1290198.jpg)
![“I think nonviolence and the mediation of conflict by means of respecting civility must be promoted. But being the kind of beings we [peoplep] are - wrestling with greed, and wrestling with fears and security, anxieties, wrestling with hatred that's shot through all of us - wars are here to stay.” quote by Cornel West](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/77e/cornel-west-708_anxiety_i-think-nonviolence-and-the-mediation-of_1904871.jpg)
![“He[Michael Jackson] had a joy in being alive. There was a joy you felt of him on the stage and making us not just feel good but pushing us against ourselves with the "Man in the Mirror," looking at ourselves critically, "Black or White," what does it mean to get caught in a color as opposed to a…” quote by Cornel West](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4df/cornel-west-708_alive_he-michael-jackson-had-a-joy-in-being-al_777384.jpg)
